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Archive for April 7, 2012

The U.S. Government wants to give itself new powers to spy on our internet and email use in real time – the CISPA law – but a massive national outcry can save the internet and stop the big brother law. The Internet is Yours. Don’t let the U.S. Government takes it from you!

“As concerned citizens we urge you to immediately drop plans for an Internet big brother bill (Communications Capabilities Development Programme). Our democracy and civil liberties are under threat from the excessive and unnecessary internet surveillance provisions without any judicial oversight in this bill. We hope you will protect our privacy and keep your election promise to “reverse the rise of the surveillance state”.

WHAT THE HELL IS CISPA???
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a United States proposed law introduced on November 30, 2011 by U.S. Representative Michael Rogers (R-MI) and 29 co-sponsors. The bill would give the U.S. government additional options and resources to prevent certain cybercrimes, namely trafficking in intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The bill was reported out of committee on December 1, 2011 and has yet to be debated or brought to a vote. CISPA is an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, which does not currently contain provisions pertaining to cybercrime. It is viewed as a companion bill to the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act. The bill describes cyber threat as a “vulnerability of, or threat to, a system or network of a government or private entity, including information pertaining to the protection of a system or network from— (A) efforts to degrade, disrupt, or destroy such system or network; or (B) theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.” Source: Wikipedia.

In another words, when US lawmakers attempted pass SOPA and PIPA the whole world protested against it, but despite the fight against those laws another is being introduced, CISPA. H.R. 3523 Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) will allow for any federal agency to monitor and censor anything they deem necessary. The bill is being sponsered by Rep Michael Rogers and it claims to want;

“to provide for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cybersecurity entities, and for other purposes.”

However the reality of this bill is somewhat less constitutional as it would break privacy laws and override the right of free association. Under CISPA, the FBI could demand private information from an ISP without a warrant, judge or legal process having taken place and purely on the say so of the person in the agency. It is important that CISPA becomes widely known and recognised for being another attack on our freedoms.
We beat SOPA and PIPA and we can defeat CISPA as well.

And the Big Brother begins to raise. The future, my friends, will be more terrible than in our worst nightmare? Soon, as fast as you can think, all you will see on this blog may be just this:

Text from Wikileaks forum:

Barely after the collective Internet breathed a sigh of relief over the shelving of SOPA and PIPA, the US Congress is back with CISPA – a bill that could have even more far reaching consequences on online privacy and the freedom of the Internet.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) allows companies to collect information about people and give it to the US government in the name of cyber security. The main problem with the bill is that it is so broad it can even lead to companies and the government monitoring and censoring what people say.
According to the digital right website Electronic Frontier Foundation, what this means is that “a company like Google, Facebook or Twitter could intercept your emails and text messages, send copies to one another and to the government, and modify those communications or prevent them from reaching their destination if it fits into their plan to stop cybersecurity threats.”
A spokesperson for the US based Centre for Democracy and Technology said that what is of major concern is the fact that CISPA is extremely vast in terms of the types of information it will allow the government to receive. She also said that the bill would create a vast hole in all existing privacy laws and could be used as a back door wire tapper of sorts.
Electronic Frontier Foundation says that CISPA uses such sweeping language that it would give companies and the government new powers to monitor and censor communications for copyright infringement. It could also be a powerful weapon to use against whistleblower websites like WikiLeaks.
At today’s date CISPA has the support of over 100 representatives in the House, who favor the cybersecurity legislation, but do not take into account what it can do to the everyday Internet user.
It remains to be seen if major companies and regular Internet users can come together once more to make sure CISPA is not passed in its current form. But do these continuing attempts by the government to monitor what we do online, signal that the era of Internet freedom is coming to an end?